I’ve already spoken about my January, so now all I’ll say is I’m very happy and rather surprised how much reading got done and how well I managed to do for Long-Awaited Reads Month, considering. Then again, I know that I have found a certain peace and motivation in reading, where I’m deciding to sit down with a book more than I was before, so maybe that has helped.

The Books

Non-Fiction

Becky Aikman: Saturday Night Widows – Dumped from the widow support group she’d joined and wanting to create one based on trying to live again, Aikman created an original group and in this book she details their year of meetings. Brilliant – well written, insightful, and the woman are great to read about in themselves.

Susan Cain: Quiet – Cain explains why introversion is just as good as extroversion and why it shouldn’t be a second-class personality. Very good, if a bit too biased on occasion.

Fiction

Beatrice Colin: The Luminous Life Of Lilly Aphrodite – Lilly, an orphan, lives through poverty, the war, and eventually as a film star. It’s not perfect but it’s still very very good.

Lisa See: Shanghai Girls – Pearl and her sister, May, are forced to leave their lives as models behind and marry Americans when their father gets into trouble; with Japan invading China and Communism on the way, that may prove to have been for the best. Stunning, absolutely stunning.

Manisha Jolie Amin: Dancing To The Flute – Kalu, a street child, accepts the offer of tuition and board from a famous retired musician, and discovers that music can help others in ways he would never have imagined. It’s okay, but there are problems with characterisation.

Shannon Stacey: All He Ever Dreamed – Josh wants to leave home like his siblings and “find himself”, but he has no idea of his best friend’s feelings for him. A good addition to a fantastic series but suffers from underwhelming resolutions.

This month has been great for favourites. Ana and Iris’s Long-Awaited Reads Month proved a big success for me and showed me just how silly buying books and then leaving them for years can be. I may have had a lot more on my list, but even before this year I had already decided to spend more than just the one month focusing on my older books and I definitely will now. The challenge has brought back some love for books that I never realised I’d lost, and I think it may have helped me enjoy the others more, too. Shanghai Girls will likely be on my best-of list for 2013 – it’s that good a book I’ve made such a decision only one month into the year. In addition I absolutely loved Saturday Night Widows. It’s not the sort of book I would have read if I’d just had the summary to go on, but Jennifer’s review prepared me and when I was offered the book I thought I’d take a chance. Turns out taking a chance paid off a lot this time.

Quotation Report

None this time.

I don’t like to hope for another good reading month, but if I could have another like this I would be very happy.

What was your favourite book this month (or week if you round-up each week)?

This year I read 50 books in full, unfortunately still on a downward spiral like last year. I have written a review, or intend to write a review, of every one of those books, according to the goal I set myself. Having found the same as other bloggers, that writing a review helps the memory, and irritation with myself that the books I’ve not reviewed are sort of lost to the abyss, I intend to keep this up in 2013, too. Of the 50 books I read, 7 were non-fiction. I’m really trying to read more non-fiction and have found the pitches I receive to have helped a lot.

My best of the best list is, more than ever this year, a reflection of my aims to be objective. Thus you will not find my personal favourites in this selection, except of course where my personal feelings on a book matched the objective rating. A list of my personal favourites can be found after the lists of books.

As always, books that have been reviewed have a line underneath them and the title links to the review. The personal favourites is just a paragraph of book covers, because those covers (plus review links) are of course in the objective lists too.

The Best Of The Best

• Dodie Smith: I Capture The Castle – Cassandra writes about her quirky family who live in the remains of a castle in poverty and seclusion, that is until the Cottons come along. Funny, poignant, and influenced by the Victorians.
• Elizabeth Chadwick: The Champion – Monday wants a better life, as does Alexander, but a drunken night together changes everything and Monday makes a choice for both of them. One of the best books by Chadwick I’ve read so far.
• Gayle Forman: Where She Went – Mia split up with Adam after she woke from her coma; it’s three years later and Adam isn’t over it, but meeting Mia might give him the chance to find out why she dumped him. If If I Stay was good, this one is brilliant.
• J R Crook: Sleeping Patterns – Annelie presents us the writings of Crook, in which she is a character, but Crook is not really dead. Stunning unique fiction.
• Thomas More: Utopia – A philosophical discussion and debate about the fictional land of Utopia. Very good and lots to talk about, especially as Utopia, the country, isn’t as utopian as our usage of the phrase.

The Rest Of The List

5

• Asko Sahlberg: The Brothers
• Cheryl Rainfield: Parallel Visions
• Eowyn Ivey: The Snow Child
• Erin Morgenstern: The Night Circus
• Juliana Ross: Improper Relations
• L M Montgomery: The Blue Castle
• Laura Navarre: By Royal Command
• Pia Juul: The Murder Of Halland
• Roelof Bakker (ed.): Still
• Zadie Smith: NW

4.5

• Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca
• Elizabeth Chadwick: The Marsh King’s Daughter
• Hélène Grémillon: The Confidant
• Jesse Blackadder: The Raven’s Heart
• Kimberly Derting: The Last Echo
• Laura Rae Amos: Exactly Where They’d Fall
• Samantha Sotto: Before Ever After

4

• Aimee Bender: The Particular Sadness Of Lemon Cake
• Cat Clarke: Torn
• Charlaine Harris: Living Dead In Dallas
• Charles Dickens: Great Expectations
• Duane W Roller: Cleopatra
• Glynis Ridley: The Discovery Of Jeanne Baret
• Jodie Griffin: Forbidden Fantasies
• Lee Martin: Break The Skin
• Malinda Lo: Ash
• Richard Weihe: Sea Of Ink
• Robin Shulman: Eat The City
• Sarah Pekkanen: Skipping A Beat
• Shannon Stacey: Slow Summer Kisses
• Tom Reiss: The Black Count

3.5

• David Eddings: King Of The Murgos
• Debbie Dee: The Last Witch
• Ella Drake: Desert Blade
• Irving Bacheller: The Light In The Clearing
• Jim Al-Khalili: Paradox
• Kate Morton: The House At Riverton
• Keith Laidler: The Last Empress
• Mira Lyn Kelly: Waking Up Married
• Nichole Bernier: The Unfinished Work Of Elizabeth D.

3

• Elizabeth Chadwick: The Greatest Knight
• Joanna Denny: Anne Boleyn
• K Hollan Van Zandt: Written In The Ashes

2.5

• Shannon Stacey: Undeniably Yours

2

• EL James: Fifty Shades Of Grey

My Personal Favourites

This year was about reading more widely and aiming, for the most part, to choose books that would spurn in-depth and contextual reviews. The only “challenge” I signed up for was The Classics Club, and I’ve let myself take it slowly. I managed to meet a number of specific goals which I will discuss in another post shortly. I’m happy with my reading for this year, albeit that I didn’t get round to reading many of the books I’d planned to tackle, but I have managed to strike off some books I’ve had for a while.

This year was also about spending more time in the community. When I finished my exams that was the first thing I wanted to do, because my study had been intensive and I’d not had time. I’m happy to have “met” so many bloggers in these last six months and to have been able to follow blogs frequently.

Quotation Report

The Baynes family of The Light In The Clearing demonstrate how well, in the absence of knowledge of a foreign language, a word can be substituted for the plural “snags”, and as the Pocket family of Great Expectations shows, a woman brought up in the 1800s to be a thing of beauty and nothing else, was perfectly useless when it came to, well, anything at all. Whilst the heroine of Rebecca reminds us of the sad truth that we have for many years neglected the needs of our elders.

In Torn, Alice finds love amongst dead lizards, compared with Valancy from The Blue Castle who finds it in a much more appropriate beautiful forest on a tiny island. That said, I doubt Alice would wish, as Valancy does, that she could borrow a pair of legs from a cat, so perhaps finding love amongst lizards ensures your mind is kept in reality.

In Slow Summer Kisses Cam has a problem – how can he avoid Anna, and thus avoid kissing her, if she continually puts herself in dangerous situations? Whilst in Before Ever After, Shelley’s problem is that she’s finding it very difficult to eat breakfast while her elderly friend is discussing her great sex life.

If you listen to Rose of I Capture The Castle you may find the man you wish to be in a relationship with spurning your advances. Well, behaving like a bona fide Victorian woman in the 20th century is a bit much, don’t you think? However, if your father is refusing to write and you know that he has another book in him, and if you have a castle tower to spare, you can always lock him up until he’s written something. Or at least you can if you’re a fictional character, doing it in real life might be pushing it a bit far.

If Jodie of Exactly Where They’d Fall tells you she hates absolutely everything, don’t believe her, because for one she likes Drew, and Berges isn’t bad either. But if Jodie’s friend Piper says she’ll make you a dress, look out, you may end up in a peculiar mix of lavender and yellow – it’s what her bridesmaids will be wearing.

In the next few days I’ll be posting my goals for 2013.

What were your favourite books of 2012?

Hello again, everyone. It’s still Christmas but we’re getting to the end of it now and I’ve really missed blogging. I did wonder whether posting a December round-up and then a year round-up would be too much, but if I don’t post about December you’d have to look through the year post to find them.

All books are works of fiction.

The Books

Cheryl Rainfield: Parallel Visions – Kate sees the future when she suffers from asthma attacks, and whilst it is dangerous, the visions she sees are scary and she feels compelled to help those in trouble. A good message, the right length of book.

Gayle Forman: Where She Went – Mia split up with Adam after she woke from her coma; it’s three years later and Adam isn’t over it, but meeting Mia might give him the chance to find out why she dumped him. If If I Stay was good, this one is brilliant.

Jesse Blackadder: The Raven’s Heart – Alison has always dressed as a boy in order that the rival family will not know her; when it comes to joining the court of Mary Queen of Scots to gain back the castle, the same persona proves useful to both Alison and the queen. Very good, the pace keeps going almost throughout the entirety.

Mira Lyn Kelly: Waking Up Married – Connor’s idea of himself and a new acquaintance, who seemed a perfect match, marrying for convenience, was a great one until Megan woke up the next morning wanting a divorce. Rather funny and sweet though it does have issues.

Zadie Smith: NW – Leah’s been cheated, her partner wants a baby; Felix wants to get married; Natalie’s not sure who she is. Experimental and interesting.

This month was brilliant for ratings, I enjoyed all the books I read a great deal and it would be hard to pick my favourite. I’m sort-of taking part in Jenn’s readathon tonight, but am far from finishing the book in question. Indeed this is the first year since I started logging the books I read that I won’t be finishing on a clean slate. But with over 500 pages left of Vanity Fair to go, rushing would just have meant missing Christmas.

Quotation Report

None this time.

And 2012 is done.

So November… I’m surprised I got any reading done at all. Various birthdays, holidays, early Christmas parties, I know I made a big effort to read but I’m still surprised. Lots to read before the new year, though I won’t say I’ll be able to achieve it all, because we all know that saying so often means it doesn’t work.

Incidentally I’m back and working on a post or two (or three) on the holiday.

The Books

Non-Fiction

Keith Laidler: The Last Empress – Laidler presents his biography, from concubine to Dowager Empress. Not bad, but few sources are acknowledged, lots of time is spent on wars rather than the woman, and the printed errors are too many to ignore.

Fiction

Elizabeth Chadwick: The Champion – Monday wants a better life, as does Alexander, but a drunken night together changes everything and Monday makes a choice for both of them. One of the best books by Chadwick I’ve read so far.

Laura Navarre: By Royal Command – Katrin’s widowhood leads to her uncle the King wanting to marry her off again, but she falls for the theyn sent to bring her home. A fine epic romance.

Lee Martin: Break The Skin – two women tell their respective stories of periods of time before a crime happened. Not bad but the reveal isn’t big enough to warrant the time spent on the flashback.

Roelof Bakker: Still – An anthology of short stories by various famous and up-and-coming writers, inspired by the included photographs by Bakker. A stirring and often harrowing collection of tales, spanning various subjects but linked by a basic theme.

Quotation Report

None this time.

Christmas doesn’t start until the Coca-Cola advert’s been on.

Well October may not have been sunny, but productivity has made up for it. I managed to write and send my university application form, even if I’m wondering whether I should have chosen one university over another, and once I worked out exactly why I was having that extended reading and writing block, I read a lot more that I thought I would be able to. I’ve had a pretty good time reading, getting through some good books, and I made a start on my Classics Club list. Though I doubt anyone has done as well this month as Alex, who had, at the time of writing, read 25 books so far in October. Here are the books I did read.

The Books

Non-Fiction

Jim Al-Khalili: Paradox – Physics for the layman. Informative and actually rather detailed, but the attitude towards the reader is rather bad.

Tom Reiss: The Black Count – A biography of Alex Dumas, father of the novelist. Very good, and with a lot of background context, though maybe a bit too much of that context.

Fiction

Debbie Dee: The Last Witch – When Emmeline is taken from her humble home to marry a prince, she never could have guessed it was because she was a witch who needed protecting. Great premise, though lacking in detail.

Laura Rae Amos: Exactly Where They’d Fall – Jodie needs a new room mate, both her friends are no longer single, but it isn’t quite straightforward. Brilliant self-published chick-lit with little to find that opposes that statement.

Richard Weihe: Sea Of Ink – A partially-illustrated semi-fictional biography of the painter Bada Shanren. Interesting; includes a unique method of description.

Quotation Report

If Jodie of Exactly Where They’d Fall tells you she hates absolutely everything, don’t believe her, because for one she likes Drew, and Berges isn’t bad either. But if Jodie’s friend Piper says she’ll make you a dress, look out, you may end up in a peculiar mix of lavender and yellow – it’s what her bridesmaids will be wearing.

Right November, I’ve a lot to do in your four weeks. Let’s get started.